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Old 11-28-2019, 01:48 AM   #47 (permalink)
hermionesclone
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Join Date: May 2009
Location: London
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Hogwarts RPG Name:
Alexander River Hirsch
Gryffindor
Third Year

Hogwarts RPG Name:
--

Ministry RPG Name:
Zhuó Xiá Li

Ministry RPG Name:
Grayson Douglas Whitlock
Accidents & Catastrophes

x11 x11
Default Sorry about the length!
urine trouble | Pat's Strong Confident Other Half | Pees Like a Champion Unicorn Racehorse

Lucas's eyes widened and his face flushed at Noble's response. Potions wasn't really his subject, even despite the links to science, but the idea that his answer was getting such a positive response was unheard of. It gave him a boost of confidence, yes, but it also made him feel like he was in the spotlight again. And then there was that internal screaming. A good internal screaming.

An odd smile spread across his face as he tried to pay attention to whatever it was that Noble was talking about. Something about magical indicators? One that was harder to remember than the other two but he tried to make a note of it, anyways, with a note next to it that highlighted the part about toxins.

When he was done, the Gryffindor got up from his seat and went to retrieve the ingredients: the berries - which he was NOT touching with his hands, no thank you - and some water. He would...... get the indicator later. Two hands, remember? And since one of the items he was holding was poisonous, he was trying to be even more careful.

Returning to his seat, he tipped the berries into the mortar and added a bit of the water in as well. Did it matter how much? Was there a ratio they had to follow? He...... hoped not. Maybe it didn't matter as long as it was liquid? Looking up, he tried to look at what Jillian was doing, and then what some of the others were doing. Maybe this was fine?

Oh no. Oh no oh no.

Breathe, Dakest, breathe.

Picking up the pestle, he started slowly mashing up the berries and water mix. But....... the consistency? Uh. It looked a lot like trampled baneberries than baneberries that had water in them. He added a bit more water to the mix and continued mashing up the, uh, mixture. Maybe this was the best way to do it to get the right consistency. Or maybe that was what he was telling himself. Yeah.

Lucas didn't know how long had gone by but eventually, he had a mixture of berries and water that seemed liquid-y enough. He didn't know if it was right or not but he was going with it. Using a clean pipette, he squeezed up some of the liquid - how much? he didn't know - and deposited it into an empty vial. One he could place on his desk and not get mixed up with any of the others.

Now he needed the indicator, right? Getting up from his seat, he moved to the front of the room to fill two clean pipettes up: one with the indicator and one with the antidote. Noble had said that they only needed three drops of the indicator so he didn't need too much in here, right? But no bubbles, either. And only 50ml of the antidote, which was a lot more than the indicator. He couldn't help but wonder if that made the baneberries very strong or...... not very strong. Could he ask? Or was that stupid?

........

Deciding against it, Lucas turned around and walked back to his seat. Okay, three drops of the indicator, right? Picking up the vial, he added one, two, three drops into the mixture and gave it a small swirl. He didn't know how long for - maybe until the colour changed? - but he kept swirling until the colour started turning into a bright pink shade.

He placed the pipette with the indicator down and picked up the one with the antidote. The silvery solution was added to the vial, slower than normal because he didn't want to drop any. It seemed like this needed to be accurate and he didn't know what he would do if he had no idea how much was in the mixture. What if he had to do it again? What then?!

And there was the fact that Noble would know, which...... yeah. Not a good idea.

Luckily, he didn't need to worry about that because the solution was starting to change colour until it eventually landed on the lime green that Noble was talking about. Smiling, he placed the vial down and wasted no time in collecting up some of the other pieces of equipment: a conical flask, a burette and a stand. All from the side bench. And altogether, they were....... a lot. They made him feel smaller, for some reason.

Reaching his desk, Lucas spent a long time setting up the equipment. The tap was at the bottom, which he was assuming was the blue part. It helped that the measurements were on there because he relied on them more. The 0 had to be at the top, which was...... confusing to what he was used to but he wasn't going to complain. It was probably like that for a very good reason.

Clamping the tube to the stand took longer than he would’ve liked, probably because he was trying to make sure it wasn’t too tight but was tight enough so that the glass wouldn’t fall. It was enough to make his heart start racing again from nervousness but he tried his best to ignore it. He had an experiment to concentrate on and the last thing he wanted was for it to fall apart just because he was anxious.

When he was, uh, satisfied - or as satisfied as he could be - Lucas moved onto the next step. The tap was turned to the horizontal position before he liiiiiiiifted the stand and placed it on his chair. He was tall, yeah, but not tall enough to fill the liquid in properly and accurately. And he was sure his anxiety wasn’t going to allow it. He gently poured the antidote into the burette to the....... uh, 30 mark? Yeah, he was going to play it safe. 30 seemed like a good number, right?

He jotted that number down before taking his flask and moving to the front again. This time, for the toxin, the bottle of which had a skull on it? Uh?? As if the idea of a toxin itself wasn’t scary enough. He bit his lip as he started measuring out 50ml of the substance into his flask. Enough to see a colour change that was going to happen, it seemed.

Walking back to his seat, the Gryffindor first placed the vial on his desk and then started liiiiiiiifting the stand until it was on the desk again. Merlin, this was a workout, wasn’t it? Physical activity really didn’t go down well with him unless he had to and this seemed like a had to situation. He placed the vial under the tap and added three drops of the indicator into the toxin. Maybe it really was a good thing he’d gotten more than he needed to. He gave the flask a quick swirl until-

Pink. It was bright pink.

Now came the, uh, slightly confusing part. Or the part that needed the MOST concentration.

Lucas bent down slightly and slowly turned the tap. His heart was thumping wildly but his eyes were fixed on the stand and the measurement in front of him. When one millimetre was added, he closed the tap and gave the flask a swirl. The result? Nothing. So he added in another millimetre, closed the tap and swirled the flask. Again, nothing.

This...... was taking long already.

He didn’t know how long he was standing there but his legs were growing tired from being bent like this. And he had to pause to rub his eyes and blink several times. Eventually, the swirling led to the bright pink solution turning lime green, instead. Almost in a flash, at that. Huh.

And, of course, he had questions that he was going to keep to himself.
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